As the 80-minute mark ticked over in the first Bledisloe Test in Wellington last October, with the Wallabies and All Blacks deadlocked at 16 points each we were given a gift, eight minutes of pure rugby.
Eight minutes where both teams played the type of rugby so many love, ball in hand, building phases, valuing possession. Trying to find a way through or around the opposition while carrying the ball. God it was good to watch.
In the aftermath looking at the statistics one number leapt out above the others, like a back rower popping up in a line out; the ball was in play for 27 minutes in that second half, including those wonderful eight minutes.
Wait, what? In 48 minutes match time in the second half the ball was in play for 27 minutes. Take out the eight post final whistle minutes and that’s 19 minutes of ball in play rugby in a 40-minute half of Test rugby, the game’s greatest spectacle. So what was going on the rest of the time?
I watched the following Tests forgetting that number until the Super Rugby season. Watching a reset of a reset of a scrum, resulting in a penalty and a kick for touch and a line-out and a resulting knock on and another scrum (deep sigh), while the clock mostly ticked I was reminded of that lost 21 minutes in Wellington.
Jordan Petaia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
And things started to become clearer. Trying to mentally keep note of the time the ball was in play (ie inside the touch lines) I landed on a figure of around four and a half minutes of ball in play rugby for the next ten minutes of that game.
Surely that couldn’t be right. Timing when the ball was in play gave the same result. Time and again, across several games, whether picking a random ten minute block of the game or a half, on average the ball was in play for around four to four and a half minutes in any ten minutes, around 16 to 18 minutes per half.
By way of comparison the World Rugby website reporting on the opening rounds of the 2020 Super Rugby season and new rule changes commented “In the opening six rounds of Super Rugby AU, the ball was in play for an average of 36 minutes 15 seconds – three minutes 42 seconds longer than the average time clocked by Australian Super Rugby teams in the previous season.” Hurray for that then, a three minute increase in an 80 minute game!
It doesn’t matter if a match is an arm-wrestle for territory or a free-flowing try-fest. Or who is playing. For example in the Brumbies match against the Rebels the TV audience was shown the Brumbies in a huddle while a conversion was being lined up.
Here’s the thing though, the clock was ticking. The TV audience were seeing a group of guys stand around talking while the clock was ticking!
Who says rugby has too many committees. At times the most interesting facet of the game was listening to commentators pronounce Marika Koroibete’s surname with as much flair as they could.
So where does the time go, in a rugby sense of course? There is no simple answer that covers all games, but a few common threads can be found:
Scrums, or more specifically getting ready to scrumage, then waiting for the half back to put the ball in while the half back waits to see if he can get a penalty, and of course scrum resets.
(Photo by David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
Penalties, now it’s easy to blame over zealous and pedantic referees, who find penalties everywhere but rugby’s rule book offers those penalties. (And this is a whole other issue on its own). Usually a penalty involves a short committee meeting then a kick for touch, followed by walking/jogging to and organising line-outs which can take the best part of thirty seconds, or a shot at goal, which can take longer.
Stoppages, such as after a knock on but before the scrum is set, or for players leaving the field, or just waiting to see what happens next.
Penalties following advantage, where a team gets a penalty, plays on, advances the ball for several or more phases, often many metres up field, then drop the ball or kick it away and the referee deems no advantage (why comically metres in front of what some might call the advantage line) and retreats back for the original penalty.
The crucial point here is the clock runs throughout advantage, but does not reset to accrue those now lost seconds when the play and field position retreat to the location of the penalty. For the record I don’t actually know if these periods of play are included in the official ball in play figures.
All of which means that the ball is in play for less than forty minutes in most matches.
And this is not including rucks where halfbacks plant their feet, figure out who they are going to pass to, wait a couple of seconds to see if there is a penalty on offer and then, mercifully pick up and pass the ball. That is actually ball in play rugby, as are kicks. So many kicks.
Now rugby fans will shout that the game is not alone in having bursts of activity and then no action. Like many sports there are periods where nothing happens, between balls and overs in cricket, between points and on change of ends in tennis, golf.
But those are times when the ball is not in play. And those sports also have their own rhythms and cadences that allow those breaks to work, including on TV.
And in some cases, such as cricket, shorter and more dynamic formats have been introduced, such as T20. Rule changes have been introduced to other football codes to speed up the play when the ball is in play. Rugby’s breaks are happening too often while the clock is ticking, while play is supposedly in progress, rather than between ball in play action. At times it makes for very boring viewing.
Much has been made of the new TV rights deal as a new era for rugby. So are people watching on Gem?
TV ratings figures of 91,00 (OzTam figures for Sat 27 March) for the Tahs versus Reds suggest large numbers of people are not watching. By contrast the NRL figures for the lowest rating match (Raiders versus Warriors on Saturday afternoon) was 160,000 viewers, on Foxtel.
Just over 500,000 watched the two Saturday night games (Eels versus Sharks, Broncos versus Canterbury) on Foxtel. For the AFL the low was 48,000 for North Melbourne versus the Suns, while another 154,000 watched the Saints and Dees, both on Saturday night, and the highest was 174,000 viewers for the Saturday afternoon Essendon and Port game, all on Foxtel.
The free-to-air figures for AFL on the same Saturday night were 462,000 viewers. And 42,000 people watched qualifying for the Bahrain formula one grand prix on Foxtel!
The game does not seem to be making headway against its competitors. Could it be because it is just so slow to watch at times? Now the purists will disagree but the purists will watch the game anyway. It’s the passing fan, the casual fan, the sports fan that are going to struggle watching. It’s the losing fan that may struggle.
Because right now we are being asked to watch 80 minutes of rugby where nothing much happens for half or more of that game time.
And with so much competition for our time, where sport is competing in the entertainment sphere against other football codes, streaming services like Netflix and online gaming, being boring is a sin, and right now rugby, the game they play in heaven, is one of the biggest sinners.
Francisco Roldan
Roar Rookie
JimmyWP…! very good analysis to ask some questions, from the point of view of the game and the business. For the game itself, the net time and quality of ball in play is what counts: how many times is the ball in motion …? But beware: it is possible that the increase in the net time of the ball in play conspired against the physical capacity of the players. The indicated thing would be to find the wisdom of the middle point.
BeastieBoy
Roar Rookie
JimmyWP spot on. the game is dying in front of our eyes and will soon be sold to Private Equity who will have the willpower to change then Rules. it could be fixed with some massive changes but the dopes who got us here wont listen.
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
JimmyWP, there's another aspect that may affect viewing audiences for both rugby codes. There was a story in our local newspaper a couple of weeks ago about a replay (a replay!) of the TV serial "Vera" outrating both rugby code games that weekend by a surprisingly (at least to me) huge margin. There has been speculation for quite a while in some parts of the press that interest in football, particularly rugby codes, is gradually dropping. Now I'm hoping that's not true. But my grandson and his mates who have all played Rugby League and soccer couldn't care less about either sport. One of the most popular activities in my local library are computer games and antasy sagas. Maybe this could be an avenue for further research.
Ferg
Guest
Mate this is a top comment! I never thought of it like that. You da man.
League tries to speed the game up and its increased 1 off dummy half running by 15%...League players need to learn the art of passing to someone in a gap....they lack skill and the top 2 inches...
I hate the endless advantage rule.....We watch 2 mins of rugby for it all to be bought back 25 mtrs back up the field...Make it a NOW decision or a 10 mtr rule and just get on with the game...The importance of penalties is being overplayed by refs and no one knows what "advantage" means any more...
I do think free kicks could be given rather than some penalties......
Spot on......I want to like this twice...
I hear about the days when they actually got 120 overs in and they were 8 ball overs…In cricket tho the answer is simple…Bowl 30 overs then have lunch…..Start at standard post lunch time….Bowl 30 more and have tea….then start at normal post tea time…etc
A past ABs forwards coach recently said he used to get the forwards to pack a scrum in 4 seconds and he said they generally made it in that time......Surely the refs have the power to get the players going quicker than they do now...
Not sure why anyone watches it. Not sure why you are here commenting on it either!!!
liquorbox_
Roar Rookie
The ball is not contested enough in League, the day of legally striking during the play the ball has gone and you cant strip the ball with more than one tackler. The ball is essentially out of play from the time the referee calls held until the play the ball is completed, it is wasted time where he ball is not being contested. Broncos v Rabbitohs had 630 tackles. If there is a three second no contest period for each tackle, then there is 31.5 minutes where the contest stops. Add on other stoppages for turnovers, knock ons, dropped balls, kicks to touch, conversions etc and there is a lot of time lost per game. Add on the limited ways that a team can use tactics on beating the opposition by playing forward or backs dominated game plans then League is poor game that holds little intrigue for someone who has the ability to appreciate that contact sport is not just about brute strength.
soapit
Roar Guru
are you sure youre talking about the amateur days?
Crusher_13
Roar Rookie
The advantage rule is basic. What could the team achieve given the penalty? They can kick the ball 30m downfield and regain the ball, they get the chance to make 30 meters and still control the ball. A scrum advantage is similar, what would the team gain from a scrum? Clean ball to the 10 then a kick downfield / set play, they achieve that advantage is over. I personally think the advantage law is fine, but they should record each advantage as a penalty in the stats and for what reason. Only sometimes do referees remember they awarded advantage 5 times on the way to a team scoring. Surely 5 penalties in one section of plays equals a yellow card to at least one offender. And another personal one... if a player knocks the ball on, then holds onto it on the ground, that’s a penalty, not a scrum!
jim
Guest
I would sit and watch: endless minutes of scrum resets, endless debate about the wisdom of a kick and, even more water carriers, physios and suchlike on the pitch if they would just sort out the bloody advantage rule. Make it apply for a reasonably short period of time after the event. When players are dragged half way across the pitch for an advantage that was set six or more phases previously is a joke. It has to change. it kills any form of momentum.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
Did you ever witness or be a part of the old hit. Could be quite brutal
mjseesred
Roar Rookie
The challenge there is you have some really valid points. If you want to reflect on a sport that has tried to address this look at the NFL. Time is stopped in the game for a variety of reasons. What has it led to? Teams play their game to manage the time. You get tackled infield time plays on you run out of bounds time stops. Rugby by its nature is a game of chess. It's strategic. Adding another layer where time is an issue is not going to make things better but make it less interesting for the punter. If a scrum-half knows his team has scrum dominance why wouldn't you hold off for a penalty. The other side is the frenetic pace rugby is played at. Unlike rugby league where sets of 6 happen or afl where marks slow things down rugby players are continually running with contact. As an old forward the slow walk to the line out in the 2nd half to get your breath back was a God send. For me it's not about the time the ball is in play but how well both teams engage while it is
Coker
Roar Rookie
Rugby followers don't want to get rid of its nuances and subtleties by "speed(ing) the game up", at least not in the sense league considers speed. But you're right that Aussie rugby officialdom is at the forefront of trying to make rugby more like league, which is the ultimate in self-defeating strategies.
Coker
Roar Rookie
Precisely. Anybody who wants to do so is free to watch league or aussie rules, but there's no need to cater to the lowest common denominator by trying to turn rugby into a pale imitation. The one change I would make is to stop the clock for all scrums. Watch the scrums from the pre-professional days and they were packed in seconds. I wouldn't want to go back to that as they're a lot safer now (two blokes I went to school with have spent their entire adult lives in wheelchairs as the result of scrum collapses), but the time taken to make them safe should be taken off the clock.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
One suggestion I will always keep advancing is cutting out penalty kicks at goal from outside the 22. It’s bad enough that the clock keeps ticking for a minute or more while the ball is lined up. Even if you stopped the clock it’s a great waste of time. Most of these three pointers aren’t necessary as a deterrent and are often based on dubious interpretations of things like who fell over first in a scrum.